In recent years, much attention has been given to a vehicle, as an environmentally-friendly vehicle, equipped with a power storage device (for example, a secondary battery, a capacitor and the like) and running with the driving force generated from the electric power stored in the power storage device. Such a vehicle includes, for example, an electric vehicle, a hybrid vehicle, a fuel cell vehicle, and the like. There is a proposed technique for charging the power storage device mounted in the above-described vehicle by a commercial power supply having high power generation efficiency.
As a hybrid vehicle, there is also a known vehicle equipped with a power storage device that can be charged by a power supply external to the vehicle (hereinafter simply referred to as an “external power supply”) (which will be hereinafter simply referred to as “external charging”) as in the case of the electric vehicle. For example, the so-called “plug-in hybrid vehicle” is known which is provided with a power storage device that can be charged by a household power supply through the charging cable connecting between the power receptacle provided in the house and the charging port provided in the vehicle. Accordingly, an improvement in the fuel consumption efficiency of the hybrid vehicle can be expected.
In such vehicles, it is desirable that, during external charging, the power storage device is fully charged as far as possible at the next scheduled running time.
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 11-146505 (PTL 1) discloses a configuration providing charging control for a battery for an electrically powered vehicle, in which the charge current value is increased within the range of the maximum allowable current value when the maximum controllable time period determined based on the current time and the next scheduled running time is shorter than the required charging time period determined based on the reference charge current value and the remaining capacity of the battery.
In Japanese Patent Laying-Open No, 11-146505 (PTL 1), the configuration described above allows the battery to be nearly fully charged as much as possible even in the case where the time period from the time at which an instruction is given to start charging to the scheduled running time is relatively short.